Sweet, soaring, rocksteady courtship. BB Seaton, Delano Stewart and Maurice Roberts in top form. Plus a Ken Boothe scorcher — plangent, vocally idiosyncratic, stoic — masterfully channelling Otis.
Bagpiping meets Partch DIY and the singing of Pandit Pran Nath, at the grass roots of Fluxus, in an empty swimming pool. Long, slowly building drones, lightly processed, with snatches of melody. Check it out.
Top-notch, funky, eclectic jazz singing.
Dazzling abscondments from bebop, as fresh and challenging now as then.
Microtonal and pointillistic; formally forensic and equal handed; freely and limpidly expressive. Strictly no going through the motions; no cliches; no posturing, or emotional bluster.
‘What comes out is an investigation of sound from the inside out, textually, tonally, spatially’ (as Pitchfork describes a much later session).
Clarinet solos, and duos and trios with Steve Swallow and Paul Bley.
Amazing stuff.
Frightened… Rebellious Jukebox… Industrial Estate (Yeah Yeah)... Futures And Pasts…
New Face In Hell… Pay Your Rates… Container Drivers… English Scheme… Gramme Friday…
Leave The Capitol… Prole Art Threat…
The six tracks comprising the original 10” plus their contemporaneous session for John Peel in March 1981.
With Lyle Mays and Nana Vasconcelos.